February 13, 2012

Need a last-minute DIY Valentine's Day gift? Show how much you care by using 50 cents' worth of paper and glue to make a pendant.

I was inspired by all the pixel stuff at Pinterest lately. (Part of the 80s revival, perhaps?) And I was really impressed by a paper necklace Patricia Zapata was sporting at the Alt Design Summit recently.

To make the pendant, cut 12 hearts from cardstock. You can download the PDF template here, print it at 100%, and cut out hearts very carefully with an X-acto knife. Or, if you have a Silhouette cutting machine, download the .studio file here and make your machine do the work. The template produces hearts that are 1.5" wide.

Glue the hearts into a stack, applying glue sparingly. Sometimes it's helpful to use the tip of the bottle to smear the glue around a bit. I used Mono Aqua clear glue from Office Max.

As the glue dries, the pendant will harden nicely. If you wanted to seal it, you could brush on some hard coat Mod Podge or apply a coat of clear acrylic gel medium.

i can say from experience if you don't have a cutting machine, these are a bit of a PITA to cut. I would recommend a blade with a wider angle, i can't remember the number, or a chisel style blade. You will snap the tip off a regular blade fairly fast.

I have a craft robo pro and although i eventually got it to cut through my 120# paper, it took a lot of pressure and multiple passes. So the one photographed was cut by hand.

love, Love, LOVE this <3 i printed out the template and spent around 2 hours cutting it out with scissors (and a needle for the inner square). It was so worth the time. I love my necklace. Thanks for posting this. (:

I have an idea that I'm attempting with no luck using this idea... add a keyhole to the heart (keeping with the pixel style) for 1 pendant and also make a key in pixel style. for a second pendant... "Holds the key to my heart"... I am having a hard time making the sizes right and having a rough time and I am unsure why the ones I Have done with the key have not even came close to what I had pictured in my mind... I'm not very crafty but if anyone still sees this please any ideas would be greatly appreciated...